@Matthew Samson, The conversion into a rental and then 1031 can actually be used with the primary residence exemption as long as you watch your dates.Your parents move out for a year and convert the property to investment. 

Not sure how well any given agent can actually assist a buyer in negotiations.

It was actually more of a townhouse (just zoned as a condo).

Some flips you will only have the budget to paint, do new flooring, etc....others will justify a higher-end remodel to get the best ROI.You just need to get a Licensed General Contractor to go over your Scope Of Work and attach a pricce to what you want to do.Now, if you wanted more precise guesses at your budget, and gave us a Zillow link...we could actually throw some numbers at you.

(to actually take advantage of the economy of scale) I am not sure even that is a rare gem.

Old investors like me only invest in the subscription for pro; we don't buy courses or books (actually, I own probably 20 of their books) regularly.

I would love to hear from those who have actually invested in these areas vs. realtors/real estate agents.  

I'm actually not familiar with Privy at all!

Are the students actually doing deals?

There are very few instances when cost seg won't help you on a rental property, but when you deploy the actual cost seg will depend on what you need on your taxes.